Iran's Plan to Destabilize Egypt

Anna Mahjar-Barducci

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4343/iran-egypt

Iran is planning an offensive against Egypt from the west and from the south.
The Iranian government has long-term plans.

The Iranian regime's new enemy, it seems, is Egypt's President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi.
Iran's mullahs apparently fear Sisi's secular stance against Islamist movements, and see him as an obstacle to Iran's future influence in the Middle East.
According to the Jordan-based media outlet Al-Bawaba, Iran is determined to put an end to Al-Sisi's rule by training the Libya-based Islamist group known as the Free Egyptian Army [FEA]. The FEA is composed of both Egyptian jihadists who went to fight in Syria during the rule of Egypt's former President, the Islamist Mohamed Morsi, as well as other Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood militants who fled from Egypt to Libya after Morsi was removed from power.

Then Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi embraces then Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad upon his arrival in Cairo on February 5, 2013. Ahmadinejad was Iran's first leader to visit Egypt since the two countries cut diplomatic relations in 1980. (Image source: Ahmadinejad official handout)

According to Al Bawaba, personnel of the Quds Force -- the special-forces arm of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps [IRGC] -- arrived in Libya to train the FEA in Misrata, northwestern Libya. Quds Force officers met with FEA leaders -- reportedly Abu Dawud Zouhairi and Karam Amrani. There, Lebanese jihadists coming from Syria and led by Abu Fahed Al-Islam also joined the FEA.

As I see it: Europe’s more complicated problem

MELANIE PHILLIPS 
 

The Jewish world has reacted with horror to the results of the European elections as displaying an upsurge of parties promoting Jew-hatred. Certainly, the results give plenty of cause for such concern. But in significant respects, such a response is wildly off-beam.

Some parties which surged, such as Greece’s Golden Dawn, Hungary’s Jobbik and Germany’s National Democratic Party (NPD), are undoubtedly fascist or bigoted. And France’s National Front, which avoids the open Jew-hatred of its founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen, nevertheless retains troubling undertones.

But others lumped in with these truly noxious parties by anti-Semitism-watchers are not racist or fascist at all. Britain’s UKIP wants Britain to leave the EU, restore its democratic self-government and preserve its national identity. In Italy, the former comedian Beppe Grillo’s Five Stars movement campaigns against political corruption.

Terrorists & Kleptocrats: How Corruption is Eating the Palestinians Alive

Aaron Menenberg

Across the world we have seen how kleptocratic governments destroy the chances of ordinary people to make a living. A first-hand account of how the Palestinian Authority has followed the pattern, with devastating consequences.

In 2010-2011 I worked with the Israeli Ministry of Defense’s Civil Administration, which administers non-security policy in the West Bank. This unique experience has informed my thinking about Israelis, Palestinians, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to a great extent. Among the many lessons I learned was that the Palestinian Authority does little to help the Palestinian people. One of my responsibilities as an Israel Government Fellow was to work with the Civil Administration’s agriculture team to ensure aid projects funded by foreign governments in the West Bank were executed successfully and lawfully. Much of this work involved significant interaction with individual Palestinians, most of whom were hard working, entrepreneurial-minded people focused on societal and self-improvement. In fact, many of them inspired me. I also worked intensively with the Palestinian Authority. Unfortunately, many of those experiences were deeply troubling, as I came to learn that the Palestinian Authority’s priorities and goals were often in conflict with those of its people, and held them back. This piece offers insight into the relationship between the PA and the Palestinian people.

We never forgot Jerusalem

JONATHAN SACKS

Whenever Jews remembered Jerusalem something good came of it. Whenever they forgot Jerusalem, bad things happen.

Jerusalem skyline Photo: Marc Israel Sellem

There are moments that make Jerusalem feel like no other place on earth; when you feel yourself lifted beyond time and space and embraced, as it were, by zreut olam, the arms of eternity.

There is no other place in the world where this happens. I want to share with you three epiphanies that changed my life.

The first took place in 1969. I had come to study in Israel following the completion of my first degree, and was standing on the newly rebuilt Hebrew University campus on Mount Scopus as the sun began to set, bathing the whole landscape in a divine radiance.

As I found myself looking down on the Temple Mount, I recalled the famous story at the end of Masechet Makot, where Rabbi Akiva and his colleagues are looking down at the ruins of the Temple and see a fox walking through the place that was once the Holy of Holies. As the rabbis wept, Rabbi Akiva smiled and laughed, and when asked how he could, Rabbi Akiva retold the two interlinked prophecies of Uriah – who foresaw the day when Jerusalem would be ruined – and Zachariah – who saw the day it would be rebuilt.

Traitor Bowe Bergdahl converted to Islam during his captivity, declaring himself a ‘mujahid’, or warrior for Islam according to secret new documents.

By BareNakedIslam • Posted in EnemyWithin-America

Bergdahl, who was taken prisoner by the Taliban in 2009 after being found wandering a road alone and cursing America, became accepted by his captors to the point where he was allowed to fire an AK-47 during target practice, played soccer with them and was permitted to carry his own firearm.

Daily Mail  Psychologists who spoke to Fox News’s James Rosen about the purported eyewitness accounts of Bergdahl’s imprisonment said the documents illustrated a possible case of Stockholm Syndrome – the condition which causes hostages to sympathize or even join the cause of their captors in order to survive. (CRAP! He wasn’t captured, he went voluntarily)

However, the documents reveal that Bergdahl, who was returned to American custody during a POW exchange over the weekend, endured a checkered relationship with his Taliban captors. In late June 2010, he is said to have escaped for five days and on his recapture was confined to a specially designed metal cage, where he was kept ‘like a caged animal’.

Looks pretty healthy to me!

At other times during his five-years of internment with his Haqqani captors, Bergdahl conversed in friendly terms with them and would frequently use the word ‘Salaam’, which is the Arabic word for peace. This information was obtained by and seen by Fox News provided by the secretive Eclipse Group.

It is a top-secret private firm of former intelligence operatives subcontracted by the Defense Department to obtain ground reports from every corner of the globe. Using a source within the 200 or so Taliban captors who kept Bergdahl, the former spies compiled reports for the US Central Command, or CENTCOM, which is headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida, from November 2009, to May 31, 2010.

Eclipse is operated by Duance R. Clarridge, who used to be a senior operations officer for the CIA in the 1980s. Using his groups assets, Clarridge compiled 13 situation reports or SITREPs, which were sent to Brig. Gen. Robert P. Ashley Jr. – who in April 2010 was named the director of intelligence at the J-2 level at CENTCOM.

It was SITREP # 3023, dated August 23, 2012, that provided information from Clarridge’s Haqqani sources, which makes the claim that that Bergdahl had declared himself a ‘mujahid’. This was allegedly provided to Brig. Gen. Robert P Ashley, who is now commanding general at the U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence and Fort Huachuca.

The documents seen by Fox News date from October 2009, which is around three-months after Bergdahl walked away from his base in Afghanistan to August 2012. They paint a picture of a turbulent period in captivity – which included bouts inside a metal cage after his failed June 2010 escape.

Other reports reveal that Bergdahl would play soccer with his Taliban captors and was granted the use of an AK-47 for target practice. Bergdahl was also allowed to carry his own firearm during certain times of his imprisonment.

His filthy leftist parents, one of whom prays to Allah

SITREP #3023 was compiled using a source close to Mullah Sangeen, the Haqqani commander charged over the past five years with the care of Bergdahl. Eclipse admit in the report that he was not 100 percent trusted by the group but ‘does have plausible access to the information reported and claims to have seen Bergdahl personally in Shawal’ – which is in North Waziristan.

In a prior report, seen by Fox News, it outlines how Bergdahl and his captors changed their behavior after his June 2010 escape attempt. ‘Conditions for Bergdahl have greatly relaxed since the time of the escape. Bergdahl has converted to Islam and now describes himself as a mujahid,’ cites the report.  

Traitor Bergdahl during Taliban exchange. Not looking too malnourished to me.

‘Bergdahl enjoys a modicum of freedom, and engages in target practice with the local mujahedeen, firing AK47s. ‘Bergdahl is even allowed to carry a loaded gun on occasion.  Bergdahl plays soccer with his guards and  bounds around the pitch like a mad man.   ‘He appears to be well and happy, and has a noticeable habit of laughing frequently and saying ‘Salaam’ repeatedly.’

‘He is conversing with medical staff and becoming more engaged in his treatment plan. He is resting better,’ Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said Thursday.

USA Today reports that Bowe’s father Robert Bergdahl sent a video message to his son earlier this week and recorded a portion of the tape in Pashto, the language of his son’s captors. That would have been Mr Bergdahl’s first communication with his son in five years and there is no way he would have known anything about his son’s linguistic abilities.

Traitor’s prarents with the Traitor-in-Chief

The Daily Tip

U.S., European, and Israeli officials blast Iran for obstructing U.N. nuclear transparency investigations Iran Supreme Leader's taunts may impact U.S. debate over congressional role in negotiations Turkey development minister: Iran looking to deepen role of Turkish banks in billion-dollar energy schemes Analysts: Hezbollah diversifying threats against Israel, may attempt spectacular invasion of Israel in next war

American and European officials on Wednesday deepened their criticism of what is increasingly being seen as deliberate Iranian foot-dragging on Tehran's obligations to come clean regarding the so-called possible military dimensions (PMDs) of Iran's atomic program, a reference to a range of activities from the military's involvement in producing nuclear material to outright work on potential nuclear munitions. The UN's nuclear watchdog (IAEA) has for years been striving to increase transparency around those activities, and has more recently conducted negotiations with Iran in parallel to talks between the Islamic republic and the P5+1 global powers aimed at putting Iran's nuclear program beyond use for weaponization. PMD issues are nonetheless considered a core component of the P5+1's overall efforts, and a Wednesday Reuters article on the issue noted that "U.S. officials say it is vital for Iran to resolve the IAEA's questions if parallel negotiations" are to continue. A Thursday Reuters article conveyed statements from Israeli officials echoing the sentiments, condemning what they described as "false" accounts by Iranian officials regarding PMD-related issues. Long-standing Western demands that Tehran fully account for PMD-related work - codified among other places in United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution 1929 - have emerged as a central component of ongoing talks between the P5+1 global powers and Iran. The PMD issue has also become tangled in broader controversies regarding Washington's role in the region and the world. Analysts - to say nothing of the U.S.'s traditional Middle Eastern allies - have in recent weeks become increasing clear in insisting that Iran's willingness to disclose its past activities is now functionally a test of whether Washington is willing or able to extract genuine concessions from the Islamic republic.

How One Democratic Congresswoman Could Spoil the Party for Hamas

Rep. Nita Lowey vows to put the brakes on Obama admin's 'unrestricted funding' of Hamas-aligned PA government.

By Edwin Black

Will Nita Lowey spoil the party?

Flash 90

America grants the Palestinian Authority about $500 million annually; the fast-spinning money meter has already broken the $5 billion mark over the years. The annual financial infusion has been on autopilot as Israelis and Palestinians negotiated over the meters and metrics of a two-state solution. American money has been lavishly spent on the Palestinian Authority for one purpose: to encourage the peace process.
Recently something changed. The Palestinian Authority unified with Hamas, making it the largest, best organized, and best armed terrorist entity in the world. Hamas, long designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization, is well-known for showering Israeli civilians with rockets and for leading the deadly suicide bombing campaign against Israeli civilians during the Second Intifada. Quickly dashing any hopes of change, Hamas did not disband its highly-armed and trained militias, vowed to never recognize Israel, and barred pursuing joint peace.

Dangerous and False Palestinian "Unity"

Efraim Inbar
BESA Center Perspectives
June 5, 2014

http://www.meforum.org/3856/dangerous-and-false-palestinian-unity

_{As long as the military branch of Hamas remains independent, there is no Palestinian unity. Under the current accord, instead of the PA regaining lost Gaza, Hamas is gaining better access to the West Bank. The current Western stance, which supports the continuation of a fragmented Palestinian polity, makes the establishment of a stable Palestinian state more unlikely than ever. Moreover, acceptance of a growing role for Hamas is inimical to Israeli-Palestinian peaceful co-existence.}

The new Palestinian "unity" government is not about the reestablishment of one Palestinian political entity that could develop into a functioning Palestinian state. Already in the early 2000s, the Palestinian Authority (PA) degenerated into a failed state as it lost monopoly over the use of power in the territory under its jurisdiction with the advent of several competing militias. Indeed, in June 2007 Hamas orchestrated a military coup that put the Gaza Strip under the control of this terrorist organization.

The Term “Occupied Territory”

Eli E. Hertz | June 5, 2014

The term “occupied territory,” which appears in the Fourth Geneva Convention, originated as a result of the Nazi occupation of Europe. Though it has become common parlance to describe the West Bank and Gaza as “occupied territories,” there is no legal basis for using this term in connection to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Professor Julius Stone, a leading authority on the Law of Nations, categorically rejected the use of the term “occupied territory” to describe the territories controlled by Israel on the following counts:

(1) Article 49 relates to the invasion of sovereign states and is inapplicable because the West Bank did not and does not belong to any other state.

Salafism in Germany: "Something Must Be Done Immediately"

Soeren Kern
June 5, 2014

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4342/germany-salafism

Counter-terrorism efforts are too focused on security-related threats rather than on prevention and combating radicalization at the earliest stages of indoctrination.
Salafist groups are recruiting and radicalizing young Muslims under the guise of doing "mission work."

Salafism is the fastest growing Islamist movement in Germany, and Salafist jihadists pose one of the greatest threats to national security, according to a new German intelligence report.
The annual report—known in German as the Verfasungsschutzbericht Niedersachsen 2013—focuses on threats to the democratic order in the northwestern German state of Lower Saxony, home to a sizeable Muslim community.
The 196-page document was prepared by the Lower Saxony branch of Germany's domestic intelligence agency, the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV), and was made public by Boris Pistorius, the Interior Minister of Lower Saxony, at a special press conference held in the city of Hannover on May 25.
Despite its regional focus, the report provides a wealth of information about the rise of radical Islam in Germany as a whole.

A Salafist demonstration in Solingen, Germany on May 1, 2012, moments before it degenerated into a violent riot. (Image source: YouTube)

Most notably, the document reveals that membership in Islamic extremist groups in Germany rose to 43,185 in 2013, up from 42,550 in 2012. It also states that the number of Salafists in Germany rose to 5,500 in 2013, up from 4,500 in 2012, and 3,800 in 2011.

  Steven Plaut On June 5, 2014
Originally published by the Middle East Quarterly. 

It is commonplace to attribute much of Israel’s domestic tensions to supposed Jewish discrimination against the country’s Arab citizens.[1] Nearly every Israeli Arab nongovernmental organization insists that such discrimination characterizes the Jewish state in general and its labor markets in particular.[2] The Israeli media routinely interview Israeli Arabs (and non-Ashkenazi Jews) who claim to have been victims of discrimination. These allegations are echoed by Jewish Israeli academics, think tanks, and journalists, especially on the political Left, not to mention the international anti-Israel movement and the boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaign. Indeed, the U.S. Department of State has even joined the growing outcry concerning Israel’s alleged racist discrimination against its Arab citizens.[3]
Of course, in reality, Israel is the only Middle Eastern entity that is not an apartheid regime, and the apartheid slander holds no water whatsoever save in the minds of the Jewish state’s enemies and defamers. Yet discrimination is a scientifically empirical question subject to testing and not a matter of subjective personal opinion. Stripping away the venomous anti-Israel rhetoric, the legitimate question remains whether and how much discrimination really exists in Israel.

Inequality Myths

Ethnicity in Israel is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon. Both Jews and Arabs are subdivided into ethnic sub-groups, making exploration and analysis of ethnic disparities a complex challenge. In official statistical data on income, Israeli Arabs are treated as a single population group, but this is somewhat misleading. There are important differences in socio-economic status and performance among Arab Christians, Arab Muslims, and Druse. Those sub-categories are in fact amalgams of even smaller divisions. For example, there are interesting differences between “ordinary” Arab Muslims and Bedouins. The Israeli Income Survey sample does not include the Arab population of the “occupied territories,” except for East Jerusalem and the small population of the Golan Heights, both of which are formally annexed to Israel.

Australia drops 'occupied' from references to Israeli settlements

George Brandis sparks heated debate by saying areas under negotiation should not be described in 'judgmental language'

• Australian Associated Press
• theguardian.com, Thursday 5 June 2014 

George Brandis speaks in the Senate chamber. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

The Abbott government has ruled out using the term "occupied" when describing Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem, prompting suggestions about a shift in Australia's foreign policy.
The government on Thursday delivered a statement to clarify its stand on the controversial question of the legality of settlements after the issued flared up at a Senate hearing the night before.
The attorney general, George Brandis, on behalf of the minister for foreign affairs, Julie Bishop, said it was "unhelpful" to refer to historic events when describing these areas, given the ongoing Middle East peace process.
"The description of East Jerusalem as 'occupied' East Jerusalem is a term freighted with pejorative implications which is neither appropriate nor useful," Brandis told a Senate estimates hearing.
"It should not and will not be the practice of the Australian government to describe areas of negotiation in such judgmental language."
Brandis sparked a heated debate the previous evening when he stated that no Australian government of either political persuasion "acknowledges or accepts" the use of the word occupied.

Continued Palestinian Aid Breaks the Law

Jonathan S. Tobin | 

 

Yesterday’s decision by the Obama administration to continue funding for the Palestinian Authority despite its alliance with Hamas terrorists was a blow to the cause of peace as well as a slap in the face to the state of Israel. The administration thinks it can hide behind the pretense that such aid isn’t going to Hamas because it is shielded by a Cabinet of technocrats that have been appointed by PA leader Mahmoud Abbas won’t include a member of the terror group. But no one is fooled by this scam. 

Hamas is now an integral part of the PA apparatus. Since Hamas has not dropped its call for Israel’s destruction and the slaughter of its population, arguments that it has been co-opted by the supposedly more moderate Fatah can’t be taken seriously. The unity agreement is based on a common abhorrence for peace that is shared by the rank and file of both major Palestinian movements, a point that is proved by Fatah’s repeated rejection of Israeli peace offers and decision to strike a deal with Hamas rather than Israel.
This is a body blow to the cause of peace since without U.S. pressure or even a gesture in the direction of accountability, it’s clear the Palestinian leadership will never recognize the legitimacy of a Jewish state no matter where its borders are drawn.
But as frustrating as this betrayal may be for the broad bipartisan pro-Israel coalition in Washington, this is not just a matter of bad policy. By keeping U.S. taxpayer dollars flowing to the PA, the administration is breaking the law. As Senators Mark Kirk and Marco Rubio pointed out in a letter to Secretary of State Kerry yesterday, U.S. law clearly states that continuing aid to the PA if it has entered into a pact with Hamas is illegal under the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006.

The subterfuges that the PA is using to avoid losing the U.S. and European funds that keep its kleptocracy operating are so obvious that surely even the Obama administration isn’t falling for them. As the Palestine Media Watch site pointed out, the PA’s practice of paying salaries to imprisoned terrorists is being discontinued. Instead of direct payments from the PA, the murderers will get their checks from the Palestine Liberation Organization. Where will the PLO get its money? From the PA out of the funds donated by the EU and the U.S, that’s where.
This cannot be allowed to stand. Though the president will be able to use the waivers included in the legislation to violate the clear intent of the legislation, Congress must exact a price for this underhanded subterfuge. Though the president can’t be directly stopped from giving the aid, this extralegal maneuver must be countered by either new legislation that prevents him from funding terrorists or by cuts in allocations to the State Department and future foreign aid bills.
As he has repeatedly shown in the past, President Obama views the rule of law as a flexible concept rather than one that obligates him to respect the will of Congress. But having flouted the law in this case, Congress must restrict his ability to funnel money to Palestinian terrorists in the future.

Hamas official: Formation of unity gov't is 'surrender on part of Hamas'

KHALED ABU TOAMEH

Although the Fatah-Hamas unity government was sworn in earlier this week, a Hamas official says still major rift between two groups.

Senior Fatah official Azzam Al-Ahmed (L), head of the Hamas government Ismail Haniyeh (C) and senior Hamas leader Moussa Abu Marzouq hold their hands after announcing a reconciliation agreement in Gaza City April 23, 2014. Photo: REUTERS

Deep differences have erupted among the Hamas leadership over the reconciliation agreement with Fatah, which resulted in the formation of a Palestinian unity government, the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper revealed on Wednesday.
A source close to Hamas quoted a senior official of the Islamist movement as denouncing the deal with Fatah as "surrender on the part of Hamas," the paper said.

The Daily Tip

WSJ: Palestinian unity government violating two decades of treaties by refusing to disarm Hamas Reports: Congress moves to reassert voice in Iran deliberations, amid new evidence of sanctions-busting After overtures from new Egyptian president, State Dept. pushed by reporters on ongoing Apache helicopter delays Hamas-Hezbollah meetings fuel fears that Palestinian terror group reentering Iranian axis

The Wall Street Journal late Wednesday criticized the Obama administration for agreeing to fund the recently announced Palestinian unity government - agreed to by the rival Fatah and Hamas factions, and unveiled earlier this week - with the outlet pointing out that the new cabinet's refusal to dismantle Hamas's military infrastructure was difficult to square with White House assurances that Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas is living up to past treaties signed with Israel.

Austria: Muslim Brotherhood's New European Headquarters

Valentina Colombo
June 4, 2014 

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4336/austria-muslim-brotherhood

What is clear is that Austria's "Law of Islam" of 1812 represents protection for Islamic organizations that no other European country has to offer.
Many Egyptian communities in Austria, however, do not define themselves as Muslim. They are completely opposed to political Islam, and are enormously worried about the presence of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The 1912 law might be delivering the most potent weapon of Islamic extremism at the expense of the majority of Austria's Muslims -- most of whom practice their religion as a part of life not as an instrument of power.

One reason for the possible relocation of the Muslim Brotherhood's European headquarters from London to Graz, Austria, mentioned by The Daily Mail on April 12, might well be the inquiry, started by the British government in March, into the activities of the Brotherhood.
Ibrahim Munir, Secretary General of the Muslim Brotherhood and often referred to as the head of the Brotherhood in Europe, had said to the Anadolu news agency that he could not "imagine or accept leaving Britain for any other country."

Muslimsplaining Islamic Terrorism Away

 Sultan Knish

As bloody bodies and smoke rise into the air after a cry of Allahu Akbar and a bomb detonation, each Muslim terrorist attack is followed by "Muslimsplaining" why the latest act of Islamic violence had nothing to do with Islam.

Sometimes the Muslimsplainers are Muslims. Often they aren't even Muslims.

When Boko Haram, an Islamic terrorist group aligned with Al Qaeda, kidnapped Nigerian girls, the media's Muslimsplainers sprang into action to explain why it had nothing to do with Islam.

Time featured "5 Reasons Boko Haram is Un-Islamic"; a listicle friendly article from one of those non-Muslim experts on why Islam is feminist .

"With their sustained campaign of murders and kidnappings, the members of Boko Haram conduct themselves in a manner that could barely be more alien to the Prophet Muhammad teachings," the article claimed. Mohammed spread Islam through a sustained campaign of murders and kidnappings. Claiming that murder was alien to Mohammed is like claiming that pledge drives are alien to PBS.

Fatah Leaders: Abbas Is A Dictator

Khaled Abu Toameh

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4341/fatah-abbas-dictator

Hamas's chances of winning elections do not seem to be bad at all. Eight years after the last parliamentary election, Fatah is likely to be defeated at the ballot box once again.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has finally made peace with Hamas. But will he able to extinguish the fire that has erupted in his own backyard?
Earlier this week, Abbas decided to expel five "unruly" officials from Fatah, plunging the faction into turmoil and triggering calls for a revolt against the Palestinian Authority [PA] president.
The five men - Majed Abu Shamala, Sufyan Abu Zaida, Rashid Abu Shbak, Nasser Juma'a and Abdel Hamid Masri - were expelled because of their close links to ousted Fatah strongman Mohammed Dahlan.
Dahlan was expelled from Fatah three years ago after falling out with Abbas and his two sons, Yasser and Tarek. Since then, Dahlan, a former security commander of the Gaza Strip and an elected member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, has been living in the United Arab Emirates.
In the context of the ugly dispute between the two, Abbas has accused Dahlan of being responsible for the murder of six Palestinians and involvement in the "poisoning" of former PLO leader Yasser Arafat.

The outrageous, blatant lie that Jesus was a Palestinian Arab!

Redacted from an in-depth investigative report
By the brilliant Melanie Phillips

COMMENTARY

Within the Protestant world, many churches are deeply hostile to the State of Israel. They present the Palestinians as victims of Israeli oppression while ignoring the murderous victimization of Israeli citizens at their hands. This much is generally known. What is less known is the even more disturbing fact that this perverse animus is increasingly fed not by the politics of the present moment but by theology.

This is all the more striking because millions of evangelical Christians are among the most passionate supporters of Israel in America and elsewhere. These Christian Zionists believe the Hebrew Bible’s account of how God chose the Jewish people to form a kingdom of priests and promised them the land of Israel. That religious belief has turned Christian Zionists themselves into a key target for evangelization on the part of those churches that have Israel in their crosshairs

The Christian world likes to forget it, but the history of its relationship with the Jews is terrible. In medieval Europe, the Catholic Church used blood libels to incite the population against the Jews, converted them at knifepoint, and murdered them in great number.

Czech President Milos Zeman Gives Amazing Speech about Islam, Israel and Anti-Semitism

Milos Zeman, the President of the Czech Republic courageously condemned the culture of Islamic anti-Semitism behind the Brussels attack as well as commenting in an informed fashion on the larger trend of Islamic Supremacist violence.

“The only holiday of independence which I can never leave out is the celebration of the independence of the Jewish State of Israel,” Zeman said.

“There are other nations with whom we share the same values, whether it’s free elections or a free market economy, but no one is threatening to delete those states from the map. No one shoots at their border towns and no one wants to see the citizens of those nations driven out of their country.”
“There is a term called political correctness and I consider it to be a euphemism for political cowardice. So I refuse to be cowardly.”
“It is necesarry to name the enemy of human civilization and this enemy is international terrorism associated with religious fundamentalism and religious intolerance. This fanatical creed does not only attack a single nation, as we saw after September 11. Muslim fanatics in Nigeria recently captured 200 young Christian girls. And in the flower at the heart of Europe, an abominable killing took place at the Jewish Museum in Brussels.”

Jordanian official: Syrian “sleeper cells” threaten state security

Source says authorities suspect Syrian intelligence operatives are posing as refugees

Syrian protesters wave the opposition Syrian flag and a placard in Arabic that reads, “no,” during a protest against the Syrian presidential elections, as others line up to vote in expatriate voting ahead of the June 3 poll, near the Syrian embassy in Amman, Jordan, Wednesday, May 28, 2014. (AP Photo/Mohammad Hannon)

Amman, Asharq Al-Awsat—The Syrian presidential election has revealed the presence of pro-Assad groups in Jordan that could form “dangerous sleeper cells that pose a threat to Jordan’s security,” a senior official claimed on Sunday. Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat on condition of anonymity, a Jordanian official said the activity of the alleged groups “became apparent a few days before the elections and became clearer on election day.”
Syrians resident in Jordan were able to vote in Syria’s forthcoming presidential election at the Syrian embassy in Amman on May 28. Voting is set to go ahead within Syria in government-held territory on June 3, though international observers and the Syrian opposition have dismissed it as a sham designed to bolster the legitimacy of Syria’s embattled President Bashar Al-Assad.

MELANIE PHILLIPS: THE RETURN OF CHRISTIAN ANTISEMITISM…….

KGS

Cropping up in all of the familiar places, and will eventually filter into the right if not properly checked

The churches most easily influenced by Palestinian Liberation Theology, are those who follow the Leftist path more than their own faith. Tony Campolo, one of the firebrands of the movement, told me in written mail some 15 yrs ago or so in response to a letter of mine challenging his anti-Israel views (he said he didn’t do email at the time), that all the emphasis on the Christian world developing relations with Israel, is coming at the expense of the Muslim world ”which is more vast than the tiny state of Israel.”

Being more ”Muslim Arab orientated” according to Tony Campolo, is then more of a benefit to Christianity than maintaining strong ties with the Jewish state (he holds to the view of winning Muslims to Christianity, the Jews are proving to difficult to convert).

UPDATE: Yisrael Medad has the following: ”It was Hanan Ashrawi in Madrid in 1991 who declared at one of her press conferences I attended that “Jesus was a Palestinian”, despite “Palestine” as a name for the country began in 135 CE, a full century after his crucifixion.”

Israel Disappointed with U.S. Reaction to Hamas-Fatah Gov't

Israel says it is "deeply disappointed" by the United States’ readiness to work with the new PA unity government.

By Elad Benari

First Publish: 6/3/2014

Swearing-in of unity government in Ramallah

Flash90

Israel said on Monday it was "deeply disappointed" by the United States’ readiness to work with a new Palestinian Authority (PA) unity government.
"We are deeply disappointed by the comments of the (U.S.) State Department regarding working with the Palestinian unity government," a government official told AFP.
"This Palestinian government is a government backed by Hamas, which is a terror organization committed to Israel's destruction," the official, who declined to be named, pointed out.

U.S. says to work with, fund Palestinian unity government

By Lesley Wroughton and Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said on Monday it plans to work with and fund the new Palestinian unity government formed after an agreement by the Fatah and Hamas factions, and Israel immediately voiced its disappointment with the U.S. decision.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas swore in a unity government on Monday in a reconciliation deal with Hamas Islamists, who advocate Israel's destruction.

The United States views Hamas as a "terrorist" organization and the U.S. Congress has imposed restrictions on U.S. funding for the Palestinian Authority, which typically runs at $500 million a year, in the event of a unity government.

“A Done Deal of Sorts”

In spite of well-founded predictions that this would never happen, a Fatah-Hamas unity government was sworn in today in Ramallah, to much fanfare.  It is to be headed by Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah (pictured below), former president of An-Najah National University in Nablus, who had been appointed by Abbas.  

 

Credit: brecorder

 

Under this new arrangement, the areas of Judea and Samaria administered by the PA and Gaza will be governed by the same political entity. There are, as I understand it, 17 ministers, five of them from Hamas.  You can see the listing of the members of the government here: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=3D701510

Some are new appointments, but eight people retain the positions they previously had.

 

One of the primary goals of this new government is the supervision of elections, which are slated for 2015.  Do not expect this to go smoothly.

Why Jesus really was a Hebrew speaker

Dr. Randall Buth 

Around the turn of the millennium, I received an email from a party looking to create a film script about a first century Jewish sage teaching in Aramaic. Since my PhD was in Aramaic, and Semitic languages are an area of expertise, would I be interested? It aroused my curiosity, so I wrote back with a question: Since Jewish teachers in the first century tended to use Hebrew, why would the filmmakers want an Aramaic script? I received a short response that this film script was about Jesus, as if that was enough said. I declined their offer.
Last week’s news controversy over Jesus’ language, sparked by the exchange between Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu and the pope, brings to light how an Aramaic-only speaking Jesus has been enshrined within the academy and society at large. Elon Gilad’s Haaretz article “What language did Jesus speak?” is a prime example.

What is Boko Haram and Why Should We Care?

DR. LAINA FARHAT-HOLZMAN 

An army of dirt-ignorant terrorists has been running rampant in Africa for the past few years. They call themselves "Boko Haram," which has been liberally translated as "Foreign Education is Sinful." But this is as misleading as when the Taliban first appeared on the scene in Afghanistan. Their name was translated as "students," a strange term for phenomenally ignorant rote memorizers of the Koran in a language few of them understood.

Boko Haram is just what its words say: "Books Forbidden."  They are the posterboys for illiteracy and mindless evil and their leader speaks directly to Allah, he says. No books needed there; he knows "pure" Islam.

Prominent Syrian Oppositionist Dr. Kamal Al-Labwani Promotes Public Initiative For Cooperation And Peace With Israel

Ofir Winter*

Introduction  In recent months, Syrian liberal and prominent oppositionist Dr. Kamal Al-Labwani has been promoting a public initiative calling on Israel to provide military and diplomatic assistance to the Syrian opposition in its struggle against the Assad regime, as a preparatory move for peace and normalization with the future Syrian regime. According to a report in the London daily Al-Arab, the initiative was prepared together with Arab and regional elements, and in cooperation with elements in the U.S. Congress, and has received the blessing of senior officers and commanders in the Free Syrian Army (FSA). As part of his efforts to promote the initiative, Al-Labwani attended several secret meetings in Germany on the matter, and has even expressed his willingness to visit Israel "if doing so would serve the Syrian people, peace, and the peoples of the region." In response to the initiative, presented over the past few months by Al-Labwani in a series of articles and print and TV interviews with Arab, Israeli, and Western media, the Syrian regime accused him of encouraging "the Israeli enemy" to occupy Syrian lands, and of treason against the homeland. Positive comments about the initiative by Israeli Labor Party leader Isaac Herzog were presented by the official Syrian news agency SANA as proof of Israel's support of the "terrorists" operating in Syria and of the scope of "the cooperation, coordination, conspiracy, and explicit plotting between the so-called 'Syrian opposition' and the Zionist entity, with the hopes of wearing down the Syrian state's forces and bringing about its destruction."

Baroness Nicholson and Iran's Iraq

Samuel Westrop
June 2, 2014 

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4337/baroness-nicholson-iran-iraq

Baroness Nicholson's defense of the Iranian regime first became apparent after the Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa and the Iranian government's offer of a $2 million bounty to anyone who would murder Salman Rushdie for his fourth novel, The Satanic Verses. At the time, Nicholson said Rushdie's "blasphemy" -- not Iran's order to murder him -- was "intolerable."
"[Iraq is in] one way or another, subject to the control of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its ideas." — Qassem Soleimani, Commander of the Quds Force, a division of Iran's IRGC that conducts operations outside Iran.
Exactly whose interests will Baroness Nicholson be serving? Her pattern of support for the Iranian regime clearly indicates that her appointment should be opposed and that Britain's program of trade envoys must become accountable so that other politicians with connections to extremist groups or despotic regimes will not be appointed to represent Britain's interests.

Why does the British Prime Minister appoint politicians with links to violent regimes as trade envoys?

For All Baseball Fans, History Buffs, and the Uninitiated............

Here is history few ever knew...

When baseball greats Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig went on tour in baseball-crazy Japan in 1934, some fans wondered why a third-string catcher named Moe Berg was included.  Although he played with 5 major league teams from 1923 to 1939, he was a very mediocre ball player.  He was regarded as the brainiest ballplayer of all time.  In fact Casey Stengel once said:  “That is the strangest man ever to play baseball.”  When all the baseball stars went to Japan , Moe Berg went with them and many people wondered why he went with “the team” . . ..



Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth


The answer was simple: Moe Berg was a United States spy working undercover with the CIA (back then it was the Office of Strategic Services).


Moe spoke 15 languages - including Japanese - Moe Berg had two loves: baseball and spying.

Don't Downplay the Anti-EU Movement

Marilyn Assenheim

Globalization, by definition, is a threat to national identity. Europe is fighting it. If you aren’t familiar with the overwhelming political victories scored by Nigel Farage’s United Kingdom Independence Party or Marine Le Pen’s Front National Party it would hardly be surprising. These victories, having achieved wins over standing parties such as Tory or Labour, are either being mocked by establishment governments or are putting government officials in lather to do what they were elected to do in the first place. The votes reflect the growing anger of Europeans. They are no longer willing to suffer globalization under the European Union and want their national identities back, thank you very much. As a result, establishment parties, right and left, got a spanking at the polls such as hasn’t been administered for a hundred years. And both ends of the political spectrum are scrambling to downplay it. The media, in Europe and America, are trying to laugh off wins that are, in reality, no joke.  People are mad as hell and they aren’t going to take it anymore.

What the media won’t tell you about the Army deserter/traitor Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, for whom we just traded 5 Taliban terrorists from Gitmo

Several American soldiers got killed looking for this POS, a deserter who joined up with the Taliban voluntarily. Forwarded from the secret Special Forces unauthorized back channel frequency:

‘WANTED TO MEET WITH THE TALIBAN’: PLATOONMATE WHO DISCOVERED BERGDAHL MISSING PAINTS PORTRAIT OF LONG-PREMEDITATED DESERTION BY TRAITOR WHOSE ACTIONS KILLED U.S. TROOPS

Sean Linnane  (h/t whuptdue) “We were at OP Mest, Paktika Province, Afghanistan. It was a small outpost where B Co 1-501st INF (Airbone) ran operations out of, just an Infantry platoon and ANA counterparts there.

The place was an Afghan graveyard. Bergdahl had been acting a little strange, telling people he wanted to “walk the earth” and kept a little journal talking about how he was meant for better things. No one thought anything about it. He was a little “out there”.

Next morning he’s gone. We search everywhere, and can’t find him. He left his weapon, his kit, and other sensitive items. He only took some water, a compass and a knife. We find some afghan kids shortly after who saw an american walking north asking about where the taliban are.

We get hits on our voice intercepter that Taliban has him, and we were close. We come to realize that the kid deserted his post, snuck out of camp and sought out Taliban… to join them. We were in a defensive position at OP Mest, where your focus is to keep people out. He knew where the blind spots were to slip out and that’s what he did.

New members of unity govt named

Today (Last Update) Time 21:02

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Seventeen members of a new Palestinian unity government to be announced Monday have been named by well-informed political sources.

They include at least nine new members, while at least eight will remain at their posts from the prior government.

Rami Hamdallah will remain prime minister, according to the sources, and Ziad Abu Amr will be the deputy prime minister and minister of culture.

New members include Mamoun Abu Shahla as minister of labor, Mufeed Hasayneh as minister of public works and housing, and Yusef Idees as minister of endowments and religious affairs.

Nayef Khalaf will be minister of local governance and Riyad al-Maliki will remain the minister of foreign affairs.

Salim al-Saqqa has been named minister of justice, Khawla al-Shakhsheer as minister of education and higher education, and Rula Maaya as minister of tourism.

Lawmakers seek acceptable conversion reform

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly speaks to Rabbi Haim Drukman to advance conversion reform • Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef strongly opposes Hatnuah MK Elazar Stern's conversion bill, says, "Stern wants to create a conversion market."

Yehuda Shlezinger

Rabbi Haim Drukman | Photo credit: Oren Nachson

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has approached former head of the Conversion Authority Rabbi Haim Drukman in an effort to advance new conversion legislation, in light of opposition from Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef to a bill recently introduced to the Knesset, which is pending further review.

According to information obtained by Israel Hayom, Netanyahu reportedly spoke with Drukman about the conversion reform bill introduced by Hatnuah MK Elazar Stern, which would see the conversion process in Israel carried out in local rabbinical courts, as opposed to the current system in which only four courts across Israel are authorized to perform conversions to Judaism.

Suspected Brussels terrorist arrested in France

Mehdi Nemmouche, 29, detained in Marseille on suspicion of murder and attempted murder • He is believed to have ties to Islamic radicals in Syria and had in his possession a Kalashnikov rifle and handgun similar to the ones used in the May 24 attack.

Eli Leon, Israel Hayom Staff and News Agencies

Screenshot of the shooter firing his gun | Photo credit: AP

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A French national with suspected ties to Islamic radicals in Syria was arrested in France on Friday over last Saturday's deadly shooting attack at the Jewish Museum in Brussels, investigation sources told Agence France-Presse.

Credit: Reuters

The suspect, 29-year-old Mehdi Nemmouche, was in the southern French city of Marseille in possession of a Kalashnikov rifle and a handgun similar to the ones used in the attack on May 24, the sources said on Sunday. He was arrested during a customs inspection at a train and bus station in the port city.

He has been detained on suspicion of murder and attempted murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise, a judicial source told AFP.

An official with the Paris prosecutor's office said the suspect has been handed to anti-terrorist investigators and could be held at least through Tuesday under French counterterrorism law.